Seeds of Possibility

The pursuit of equity in education is more than a career for me, it is my life’s work – a purpose that has spanned 18 years across early childhood, K-12, and higher education. Similar to many of you, who work day in and day out to help us realize a better future, the outcome of the recent US elections has many of us questioning if a more equitable future is slipping away.

In such moments of doubt, I remember past leaders who dedicated their lives to ensuring all learners had access to a quality education. Those leaders planted the seeds for a better future, which bore fruit - and sustains a new generation of leaders in our pursuit of equity and justice for all learners. I am aware of the great privilege we have at Imaginable Futures, to continue that legacy. We are committed to investing in those leaders - the visionaries, the storytellers, and the changemakers who, like their ancestors, continue sowing seeds for a more equitable future.

Our commitment to equity is foundational to the work we do, how we approach investments and partnerships, and the ultimate impact we aim to achieve. This commitment shows up by ensuring that those who have long been met with closed doors are given the keys to educational opportunities that can unlock a thriving future for themselves and their families. That’s why we have a focus on supporting the success of student parents – a third of Black and Indigenous college students are parents, so a meaningful effort to improve equity, particularly racial equity, in higher education must consider the role of caregiving in the lives of students. We also prioritize investments that improve equity within the higher education and child care systems, knowing that access to high quality learning environments for all student parents and their children is a prerequisite for generational success.

So when I say that our commitment to racial equity remains steadfast, I mean that it is core to our work. There is simply no other option for us but to continue to pursue equity in education as vigorously as we did last month or last year. Indeed, this has been the work of generations – and will continue to be.

That’s not to say there aren’t risks on the path forward. For funders in particular, this is our moment – to quite literally put our money where our mouth is. As our partners do the transformative work of shaping a better world for all of us, then as funders, we must use every tool at our disposal to support them. We must be committed to building relationships of trust and respect, which will require funders to shoulder more risk. That, to me, is being in true partnership. Let’s commit ourselves to navigating what’s to come - the challenges and the possibilities - together and imagining the opportunities that a new future can bring.

I chose this work because I believe that education is liberation. If you, like me, need a reminder that there are many people passionately committed to this pursuit, then I hope the insights below spark your imagination for what’s still possible.

• Just three years ago, there were no states that required higher education institutions to track the parenting status of their students. Now, there are five – with both Minnesota and California joining the list in 2024. Partners at the California Alliance for Student Parent Success and EdTrust in Texas are reminding us that these breakthroughs are happening across the country and across political divides.
• Also this year, partners with Impact Fellows Action Fund protected or added $7B in needed funding for young children and families.
• In the last month, Kids on Campus, an innovative initiative to bring more Head Start programs to community college campuses, opened the first two of many new sites and are already inspiring more institutional investments that support the one in five college students raising kids.
• Others, like Generation Hope, Ascend at the Aspen Institute, and the Urban Institute, are prompting the higher ed system to reimagine who belongs on campus and help them adapt accordingly.